Hatchet Survival Kit
Grade Level: 5th grade
MoStep:
1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.2.6
GLE:
Standard I Goal 1.1
Overview:
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is about Brain, a thirteen-year-old boy, who is traveling from New York to Canada to visit his father. During Brain’s flight his plane crashes and Brain finds himself alone in the Canadian wild. All he has on him is his windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him and now Brain now has to learn how to survive on his own.
Objectives:
1. Students will work in groups of 2 or 3 people.
2. Students will make their kits for a person who is trapped in the wilderness in the Fall.
3. The groups will make a list of all the important items for their survival kit.
4. The list can have up to 12 items on it.
5. Each group will draw what their survival kit would look like.
6. The class will have a short discussion on why they choose the items they did to be in their survival kit.
7. The class will also have a discussion about the different things they would put in their survival kits if it was a different season and they were in a different environment.
Activity:
1. Talk to the students about what a survival kit is
2. Talk about how the survival kit needs to help someone like Brain who is in the wilderness and that the season is Fall so the students need to think about the different items that someone would need in the Fall compared to a different season.
3. Split students into groups
4. Each group chooses one person to write
5. Each group gets 5 minutes to brainstorm the items they think should go in their survival kit. This list of items can have up to 12 items on it.
6. Each group will draw a picture of what their survival kit would look like
7. Show the students some examples of actual survival kits.
8. The class will talk about why they choose the items they did and the class will talk about the different items you would put in your kit if you were traveling, or the power went out and why each kit has different items in them.
Hatchet R.A.F.T
Grade: 5th
Overview:
R.A.F.T. stands for role, audience, format, and topic.
Objective:
1. The students will write as a different character in Hatchet.
2. The character they choose to write for has a different audience, format, and topic they are going to address.
3. Each student will pick one R.A.F.T. to complete.
Activity:
1. R – Brian, A – The Robeson Family, F – Journal, T – “How he is doing in the Canadian wilderness.” With this R.A.F.T. the students will need to think about how Brian is surviving, the different struggles he has had to face, they will also need to include a section in their journal to write as if the parents found the journal but not Brian, and why he is writing the journal.
2. R – The pilot, A – Brian, F – Letter from Heaven, T – “The pilot and Brian making the flight.” The students will need to talk about what the pilot’s initial reaction to Brian was, Why did the pilot decide to teach Brain a little bit about flying, What he felt when he realized he was having a heart attack, and What were his last thoughts.
3. R – Mr. Robeson, A – Mrs. Robeson, F – phone conversation, T – “Brian has not arrived yet, what are we going to do?” I want the student to write a dialogue between Mr. and Mrs. Robeson (like a movie script). I want them to think about what they would say to each other, and I want them to also make a plan of action (also in dialogue format) to plan on how they are going to find Brian and why they think this is a good plan.
4. R – News Reporter, A – Brian, F – Interview, T – “How did you survive?” I want the students to make a list of questions they would ask Brian about how he survived in the wild and then I want them to switch the audience and the role, so they will need to answer the question how they think Brian would answer them. I would like for the students to try to have at least one question for who, what, why, when, where, and how.
5. R – Reader of Hatchet, A – Gary Paulsen, F – Book Review, T – “Hatchet.” Talk about what is in a book review first. I want the students to think about their favorite part of the book and write about it, then I want them to talk about why they liked this part, the students will talk about how they would change the ending, I would like them to also think about what questions they would want to ask Gary Paulsen and I would like them to also talk about why they would recommend this book to another reader.
Socratic Seminar on Hatchet
Grade: 5th
Objectives:
1. Students will summarize Chapter 19 and the Epilogue on a piece of paper.
2. From their summaries they will write 3 questions.
3. From their questions we will have a Socratic Seminar.
Materials:
- Pencil
- Paper
- Hatchet book
Pre – Seminar
1. Main points of Chapter 19
Brian has found the survival pack and he begins to go through it. Even though he acknowledges the contents of the pack he still makes an unconscious decision to continue doing thing the way he has been. With in the pack he comes across a transmitter that after trying to turn it on believes it to be broken and disregards it. As he is getting ready to eat some of the food from the pack, a plane lands on the lake and the pilot tell him he is responding to the transmitter. Brian is so stunned the all he can say is “My name is Brian Robeson … would you like something to eat?
2. Questions for Chapter 19
· What do you think your feelings would be if you were Brian?
· Why do you think that Brian still wants to continue hunting his way?
· What do you think is Brian’s reason for having such a dislike for the riffle and many of the items in the survival pack?
· Why does Brian seem to not care that the transmitter is broken?
· Why do you think Brian accepts the food in the survival kit, but ignores many of the items that would help him survive?
· What do you think your reaction would be to see the plane?
3. Main points of the Epilogue
Brian learns that the man who rescued him is a fur buyer for Cree trapping camps. While he was surviving in the Canadian wilderness he lost a lot of body weight and he remains thin for many years. Brian under went many change in the wilderness and it seems like these changes are permanent. Some of the changes are his observant and thoughtful nature along with his fascination with food. For a short while reporters are interested in his story, but after a while the interest in his story wanes. Brian also continues to have dreams about his time in the Canadian wilderness and many of them are pleasant. Brian’s parents are even affect by his return and they get back together for a short time, but after a while they go back to their separate homes. Even though Brian intends to tell his father about “The Secret” he never does.
4. Questions for the Epilogue
- Why do you think Brian wanted to find out more about the person who rescued him?
- Why do you think that many of the changes Brian went through seem to be permanent?
- Why do you think Brian has mostly pleasant dreams about his time in the Canadian wilderness?
- Why do you think he never told his father about “The Secret”?
- Why do you think Gary Paulsen ends Hatchet with a question?
- Do you wish that something different had happened in the epilogue?
Activity:
1. Students will summarize what happened in chapter 19 and in the epilogue
2. They can use their books if they need to
3. From the summaries they have written they will need to come up with 3 questions
4. These questions will guide our discussion
5. The student will place their desk in a circle to have the discussion.
6. If the students get stuck then we will use the 